LPGA vs PGA Prize Money: 3.4x, Not 1.7x

The 2026 PGA Tour season carries about $450 million in prize money. The LPGA Tour carries $132 million.

That is a ratio of 3.4 to 1. But compare the two tours’ biggest events and the ratio falls to 1.7 to 1 — and that difference is the real story.

	PGA Tour	LPGA Tour	Ratio
Season total	$450m	$132m	3.4×
Biggest single purse	Tour Championship, $40m	Women’s PGA, $13m	3.1×
Biggest majors	Masters / U.S. Open, $22.5m	Women’s PGA, $13m	1.7×

The majors have closed. The schedule has not.

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship paid a record $13 million in 2026, with $1,950,000 to the winner — the largest single event payout in the history of women’s golf. The U.S. Women’s Open followed at $12.5 million.

Set those against $22.5 million at the Masters and the U.S. Open, covered in our guides to Masters prize money and US Open prize money. A gap of 1.7 to 1 at the summit of the sport.

Now look at the seasons: 3.4 to 1.

The women’s game has roughly halved the gap where the money is most visible, and barely moved it across the rest of the calendar. Growth has concentrated in the marquee events, because that is where title sponsors and broadcasters concentrate. A women’s major can find a backer willing to fund a record purse. A mid-season women’s tournament is competing for a far smaller pool.

The headline number is improving faster than the profession is.

One player, a fifth of a tour

Two comparisons make the depth problem concrete.

Scottie Scheffler earned $27,659,500 across 20 events in 2025. The entire LPGA Tour season pays $132 million to every player in every event. One man’s year came to roughly 21% of that.

Jeeno Thitikul topped the LPGA money list in 2025. That same figure would have placed her 20th on the PGA Tour list.

Neither is a statement about how anyone played. Thitikul was the best-compensated player on her tour; the tour itself pays what it pays.

The Tour Championship problem

One event exposes the structure better than any season total.

The PGA Tour Championship carries a $40 million purse — a single week, for 30 qualifiers. That is more than 30% of everything the LPGA Tour pays across its whole season, to its whole membership.

For scale in the other direction, all PGA Tour signature events carry $20 million purses, and The Players Championship pays $25 million. Each of those routine stops on the men’s calendar out-pays the biggest week in women’s golf.

The men’s majors each price differently again — the PGA Championship pays its winner a fixed 18% of the purse, covered in our guide to PGA Championship prize money.

Tennis answered this in 1973

Golf’s position looks different once you notice that another individual sport settled it half a century ago.

The US Open has paid its men’s and women’s singles champions equally since 1973. In 2025 both received $5 million, from a record $90 million total — set out in our guide to US Open prize money.

Tennis reached equal prize money at its majors because the majors are run by tournament organisers who chose to fund both draws from one pot. Golf’s majors are separate championships, run by separate bodies, funded by separate sponsors. There is no single decision-maker who could equalise them.

That is an explanation rather than a defence. It is also why the golf gap has narrowed by negotiation, event by event, rather than closing at a stroke.

What the prize money does not measure

Prize money is only part of a golfer’s income, and for the highest earners it is the smaller part.

Forbes’ 2026 list of the 50 highest-paid athletes contained no women for the third consecutive year, and roughly three-quarters of leading earner Coco Gauff’s income came from off-course sources — covered in our guide to the highest paid female athletes.

So the tour purse gap understates the total earnings gap at the top, where endorsement value compounds visibility. It overstates it lower down, where a strong finish on either tour is simply a cheque.

The same pattern shows up in football: England’s women have had equal match fees since 2020, but the equalised figure is about £2,000 — see our guide to Lionesses pay.

How we checked these numbers

The LPGA’s $132 million 2026 season prize pool, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship’s record $13 million purse and $1,950,000 winner’s share, and the U.S. Women’s Open’s $12.5 million are from Just Women’s Sports and Golf News Net. The PGA Tour’s approximately $450 million across the regular season and three playoff events, the $40 million Tour Championship, the $25 million Players Championship, the $22.5 million Masters and U.S. Open purses and the $20 million signature event purses are from PoolGenius’ 2026 prize money ranking and Bunkered. Scottie Scheffler’s $27,659,500 across 20 events and the placement of Jeeno Thitikul’s leading LPGA season at 20th on the PGA Tour money list are from National Club Golfer’s money list coverage.

The ratios are our own calculation from those published totals. Season figures cover scheduled prize money and can move with added events, bonus pools and playoff structures, which are counted differently between tours — so treat 3.4 to 1 as the shape of the gap rather than a precise constant. The 2025 earnings comparison and the 2026 purse figures are different seasons, stated separately for that reason.

Review class: annual, event-driven. Recheck when each tour publishes its next season’s prize money, and after each women’s major announces its purse.